1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic print board apparatus capable of printing or copying characters and figures, etc., written on a blackboard for use in conferences and meetings, etc., and more particularly to an electronic print board employing a movable scanner system for scanning the characters and the figures, etc., for reading them by permitting a read sensor to move with respect to the writing surface.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A prior electronic print board employed in conferences, meetings, and preliminary meetings, etc., is capable of scaling down characters, figures, etc., written on a blackboard, printing them, and distributing them to attendants on the spot. This board is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,587,568, and Application Ser. Nos. 739,460, 739,461, 768,819, 783,019, and 793,284.
Such electronic print board includes a writing surface on which a writer writes characters and figures, etc., an elongated lamp for illuminating the writing surface, a sensor for converting reflected light from the writing surface to an electric signal and scanning a pattern on a line of the writing surface, means for effecting the above one line scanning by the sensor over the entire writing surface, and a printer for scaling down characters and figures, etc., written on the writing surface and printing them in conformity with the electric signal provided from the sensor.
In addition, for the means for scanning the entire writing surface, two systems can be employed: one a sheet moving system and the other a scanner moving system.
In the sheet moving system, the writing surface is formed by a continuous sheet that is wound around a rotatable roller and thereby supported. The sheet is moved by rotating the roller and is scanned by a fixed sensor.
In the scanner moving system, the writing surface is formed by a board or plate, and a lamp and a sensor are mounted on a carrier that is movable along the board surface during which the surface is scanned by the sensor.
However, such prior electronic print boards suffer from the following problems:
(a) The sheet moving system, which requires a motor for rotating and driving a roller, a control unit for controlling the motor, and a power source, results in the apparatus being heavy and causes the apparatus to be large-sized, complicated, and costly, rather than a small-sized, lightweight, and low-priced apparatus, which is an object of a wall-mounted type electronic print board.
(b) The scanner moving system employs a motor to drive a scanning part such as the carrier, whereby the mechanism for driving the scanning part is large-sized and complicated. In addition, an electric control system is also complicated, while a power source unit serving to supply power thereto is also large-sized. As a result, the electronic print board apparatus inevitably is made large-scale and hence cannot be small-sized, lightweight, and low-priced.
(c) The scanner moving system is adapted to have a writing surface formed with a sheet or board, and thus cannot have a plurality of writing surfaces.
(d) An operating unit, a printing part, and many constituent elements included in the electric control system are housed in a casing located on the back or the side of the writing surface or suspended therefrom. Accordingly, the electronic print board becomes thick as a whole and large-sized, and thus is inappropriate as a wall-mounted system.
(e) The scanning unit, the electric control system housed in the casing, and an external power source are connected with each other via cables. Accordingly, the appearance of the apparatus as a wall-mounted system is injured by drawing around the cables.